INKTOBER

INKTOBER

Every time this year comes around I see artists participating in Inktober. To me pen and ink is a bold medium no mercy on mistakes. I'm comfortable with to the subtle use of watercolors or the very forgiving medium of layers and layers of acrylic paint.

My husband loves ink and pen. He gets his inspiration from a lot of the artists who ink comic books. Over the years he developed his own rebellious style, making beautiful use of black and white. 

Working with ink I am like a deer in the headlights. The bold permanent marks ink and pen give leaves no room for mistake or hiding in small brushstrokes. So I decided it is time to get out of my comfort zone and make this medium my friend and in turn let it teach me what it wants to teach me.

Just Horsing Around

I have a goofy picture of my husband at work. With his goofy smile he is the king of his domain.

Except for a few little things, a giant piece of tape totally ruins the picture. With the help of Photoshop I removed it and while I was at it i gave dear hubby a little more hair on the top.

And while I was at it I messed with the background, toyed with a few effects, play and exploration basically. Every minute was fun and best of all no stress.

Getting Lost in the Flow

Getting the feel of New paint Brushes 

Lately I have been really diving into Corel Painter and experimenting with brushes. By trial and error I play around with this brush and that and see what they do. Which means making mistakes and really experimenting. Acrylic brushes have been my focus along with the blenders. I like how the wet acrylic paint mixes with the paint beneath. For me smoothness has been the name of the game. If that was a challenge than I would play with the opacity- only if I was in a pinch. My main focus was getting the blending into a good gradient.

My painting theme at the moments is vintage cars with character. Here is an old truck I am using for practice. The smooth shiny metal gives a great challenge. I played Gregg Allman's Low Country Blues album and Stevie Nicks to help me enter into the art realm and freed me to play and find the magic.

Happy Creating and many magical discoveries

Dena

Painting Then and Now

Painting Digitally Can Free up Your Painting Style

I have been painting since I was a teenager. Acrylic on canvas. I even took pride in stretching my own canvas. A real artist does right? Mrs Smith my high school art teacher really sparked an interest in painting with acrylics. She invited local Long Island artist Jacquline Penney to do a demonstration for the class which sparked the urge to paint in me.

So I took what I got from high school and painted on my own for a long time. In 2016 I finally took a college class in painting. This refined my style. My art was headed  directly toward a kind of  realism. Is that the way my art should go I wondered? I kept heading in that direction anyway.

An artist friend spoke enthusiastically about Corel Painter so I had to give it a try. Working with all the new brushes and the settings was a new beast I have yet to master. But while surfing this learning curve I have stepped away from picture perfect perfectionism. My work on the computer is freer.  A new freer world awaits me as I explore digital painting.

Happy experimenting!



http://www.jacquelinepenney.net/index.htm

Doing Art on My Phone

I have been experimenting with making art on my phone. Using Adobe Draw I have art on the go or I can make stuff while lounging on the couch. There is no clean up, or pencils lost in the cushions.

When using a new medium there is a kind of beginners experimental freedom.  A hmmm, what happens when I try this approach. Which can lead to very interesting and expansive creations- patterned backgrounds and unexpected cartoon characters.

Now in between creations I track my ups package. Wishing my stylus Godspeed.

Love Your Soul

"Love Your Soul" says the tag on my Yogi tea teabag. For the longest time I struggled with that. Then suddenly the other day while I was I was finishing up a project for one of my classes I felt a shift. To be quite honest I was really tired of my project  and was just phoning it in so to speak. It really wasn't my best piece of work.  As I was looking at my project a sense of awe came over me and I thought, "wow I actually made this!" A  genuine appreciation for myself filled my heart. Strange  huh?

 I have come a long way artistically. It has been a rough bleak at times but I prevailed and really appreciated myself for that.  This awakened a great sense of compassion and empathy for myself seemed out side of me-like I was another person.

I saw the importance of just sitting back every now and then and just observing ones self and just appreciating who you are and what you've done-especially when you are not quite there yet. It's a little extra gift of strength  from you to you for the journey ahead. Who else,s approval could be better?

A Good Artist is also a Geek: You've got to Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek Out!

One of my painting teachers would continually joke about how the best painters had no friends. This somehow made me feel better about not being Ms. Popularity. He would also follow up with how such a person needs to spend time alone reading, studying and experimenting with their medium, In other words you've gotta geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek out!

Artists are intuitive creatures but there is also a learning curve that takes time playing and seeing what your medium can do. I recently found this out while learning photography. Instinctively I know how to frame a great shot. Although when I worked  more on the technical aspects did my photos really begin to have deeper meaning and look awesome. Art does need effort and a strong work ethic too. It wasn't till I rolled up my sleeves locked myself away from distractions and got down to business did I really begin make progress.

Nerd, is what some people would call someone who would stay home on a Friday night and mix paint, work on their HTML or watch youtube videos on how to use After Effects. When you allow yourself to geek out, with all your heart and really stalk your passions by doing the footwork your art will really begin to bloom. You will also find yourself evolving too and soon  you will be creating the art you were always meant to create.

Much love and happy geeking!